As a result, sensitive medical data of hundreds of people with dates of birth, GP and pharmacy records, medications issued and BSN numbers ended up on the street. The hospital had arranged for the hard drives to be collected for recycling by a buyer, but this turned out, in retrospect, not to be a good move. We cannot stress it often enough, but this incident demonstrates the importance of carefully recycling IT equipment and ensuring certified data destruction. Watch the video here.
Danger of careless data disposal
Many businesses and organizations, including hospitals and government agencies, deal with privacy-sensitive data. When hard drives are disposed of without proper precautions, they often leave behind data that is easily recoverable. This then leads to serious data breaches and privacy violations, as was the case at this hospital.
Certified data destruction: the only secure solution
To ensure that confidential information does not fall into the wrong hands, it is important to choose a certified IT recycling partner. IT Recycling offers secure destruction methods, including supervised on-site data destruction. Here, hard drives are physically destroyed to 9 mm fragments, making recovery impossible. In addition, the customer receives an official destruction certificate as proof.
Cheap can be expensive
While budgetary considerations play a role, this should never come at the expense of data security. Choosing a non-certified party to save a few dollars can have major consequences.
Working with a reliable IT recycling partner like IT Recycling eliminates these risks completely. Protect confidential data and choose secure and certified destruction of old hard drives. This ensures privacy and avoids nasty surprises.
Want to have your data securely destroyed? Schedule an appointment with us!